1884.] 
Dr. Meld on's Electric Motor. 
37 
VII. DR. MELDON’S ELECTRIC MOTOR. 
< 
LECTRICITY, both as a means of lighting and loco- 
motion, has made, during the past few years, such 
vast strides in public favour, that it is not surprising 
many discussions have been raised concerning it, or that the 
minds of the leading scientists have lately become engrossed 
with the study of so interesting a subject. Up to the pre- 
sent, however, owing to the enormous amount of electricity 
required to work even a medium-sized dynamo, all attempts 
at eleCtric propulsion, especially as regards boats, may be 
considered as purely experimental, its most ardent advocates 
being unable to claim for it any economical advantage over 
steam. Many theories have been adduced towards, and 
several electricians have applied themselves to the task of, 
surmounting this difficulty; but it is to the intelligence and 
ingenuity of an eminent Irish physician that the scientific 
world is now indebted for the discovery of an important 
principle, which will, without doubt, be recognised in future 
in the construction of all magneto-eleCtric machines. To 
Dr. Austin Meldon, of 15, Merrion Square, Dublin, belongs 
the credit of having designed a motor which not only does 
away with the manifold disadvantages and drawbacks at- 
tendant on the employment of dynamos, but also creates the 
largest amount of driving power, with the least expenditure 
of electrical force. Dr. Meldon, in his first attempt at 
motor construction, made use of twelve magnets, but when 
the machine was tested it was found that although each of 
the magnets would lift half a cwt., or attract a heavy iron 
bar from one inch, yet the whole twelve, when bound to- 
gether, would only lift or attract exactly the same weight. 
Seeing that something was evidently wrong he sought in- 
formation as to the cause of so singular a circumstance, but 
although he received a very large number of suggestions, 
not one of his correspondents hit upon a solution. Nothing 
discouraged, Dr. Meldon persevered in his investigation, 
with the gratifying result that after some trouble he found 
that the inertness of the magnets was due to neutralisation, 
and that by magnetically insulating the bars — about to be 
described — with copper instead of iron bolts, and putting a 
few layers of gutta percha between the bars and the rims of 
the wheels, he could develop full power, — a faCt which seems 
to have been hitherto unknown. 
